


Tea at Midnight

by Squid_Ink



Series: The Eagle and the Cross [52]
Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: F/M, I have a block on United We Stand, Nightmares, maybe Fryes later, so Kenways, thought of this last night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 19:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7983571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squid_Ink/pseuds/Squid_Ink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Connor dreams of the night he killed his father, but instead of watching Haytham die he attempts to save his father's life. Disturbed by the dream, he talks to Aveline after finding her drinking tea, unable to sleep as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tea at Midnight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



_At happened so fast, he barely had time to register what had happened. One minute his father's hands are around his throat squeezing the life out of him, the next he's staggering back, blood gushing out from between his fingers. Connor hears pieces of what his father is saying. He has noble qualities, courage, commitment… but the life is fading from Haytham's slate colored eyes, his white neck cloth stained crimson._

_Then it hits Connor, like the cannon balls bombarding the fort. His father is dying. He stabbed his father and his father is dying. "Father!" Connor breathes, scrambling towards Haytham, pulling the dying man into his arms. He presses his hand against Haytham's throat, frantically trying to stop the bleeding._

_Red gushes forth, Haytham's breathing is ragged and shallow, his skin too pale. There is so much blood, so much blood. It coats Connor's fingers, soaks the leather of his gloves, splashes on his coat. Why won't the blood stop, he has to make it stop!_

_A cannon ball whistles by, living an acidic stench of gunpowder in its wake. Still the bleeding won't stop. "Hold on Father, hold on," Connor mumbles, but he doesn't think his father hears him. A part of him yells at him to leaving the dying Templar and flee the fort before he's crushed in the rubble, the other part of him… the stubborn part refuses to budge and desperately tries to save the last member of his family. "Please, hold on," Connor begs. He should have reconciled, should have extended his hand in peace and understanding, not rage and prejudice._

_"I should have… killed you… long ago…" Haytham whispers with his final breath. Thunder sounds, a cannon ball comes whizzing towards him, Connor's eyes grow wide and_ _—_

He sits up in bed, lightning flashing and thunder rumbling overhead. He's in his room at the Homestead, very much alive, the old wound on his side acting up again. "Just a dream, just a dream," he says to himself as he tugs on a shirt and crawls out of bed. He has no idea what time it is, but heads downstairs to make some tea to help calm his nerves.

Connor is surprised to see a shadowy figure at his table. His senses on alert as he tries to figure out who is also in the house with him. He has none of his weapons, but his fists are still good so the intruder will face a challenge. The figure looks over in his direction and says, "Ratonhnhaké:ton?"

Connor stops, the sound of his name holding him in place. No one outside his tribe ever uses his name save for one person. "Aveline," he asks, "what are you doing up?" he comes into the kitchen to see his friend sitting there, a cup of tea in her hands. Aveline offers him a small smile.

"Couldn't sleep, you?" she asks, sipping her tea.

"Same," Connor says and joins her at the table. She sets her tea down, before getting up and making him a cup. She hands it to him and he cradles it in his large hands. He could hear the patter of rain, the rumble of thunder and suddenly they are illuminated in the bright white light of the lightning bolt. Aveline's hair is in a frizzy tail at her nape, a scarf about her head in an attempt to tame it, her shift hands loosely on her shoulders, her mother's locket around her throat.

They sit there in silence, drinking their tea, taking comfort in each other's company. "I had that dream again," Connor mumbles. "The one where I try to save my father."

"Do you miss him?" Aveline asks. Connor sighs, tired.

"Regret is a better feeling," Connor replies. "He lost his father… felt that the Brotherhood betrayed him… so much hate and blood… my mother was his only solace but he was too blind to see it." Connor sips his tea, mulling over his dream, his father's journals, the ten thousand what-ifs that plague is mind in these soft hours of the night. "In my dream I try to save him, but the bleeding would not stop. There was so much blood Aveline, so much blood. He did not beg me to spare him… he never does, but I plead with him to hold on… to not leave me just yet."

Aveline listens in silence, sipping her tea, waiting until Connor has finished sharing his dream. "I'm sorry, Ratonhnhaké:ton," she says. "I know it's inadequate, but… it's all I can say." She faced her own legion of demons at night. Her hands were stained red with the people she cared about. "Madaeleine… she raised me as her own daughter. Taught me things a mother would teacher her daughter. How to be strong, to be brave, to use my womanly wiles to my advantage, to think for myself," Aveline sighs. "I… I loved her as any daughter would. I came to her when I had my first broken heart, my first bleeding… the first time I realized I'm from two worlds yet belonging to neither."

Aveline looked at Connor. "I killed her," she whispers, "I told myself at the time it was for the greater good, for all of mankind. She was the Company Man, the Grand Master… she took escaped slaved and placed them in a gilded cage."

"Yet?" Connor asks. Aveline sighs, staring into her tea.

"And yet she only ever showed me love and kindness. She was a Templar and she wanted to control the world, but she'd hold me after the nightmares, sing me lullabies… I wish I didn't have to kill her."

"You did what you had to do," Connor says.

"But was it the right thing?" Aveline asks, she takes Connor's hand in her own and he squeezes it.

"We can only trust in our own hands, and hope that our actions are right," Connor says. "My father… while we met not under the best of circumstances he… did not kill me when he had the chance. He was not the kindest of people but… I like to think in his own way he showed me love. He felt bad when he told me of Washington's betrayal. He wanted to make amends." Connor sips his tea. "In the end he bled like any other man, in the end he was human and flawed like the rest of us. Templar… Assassin… take those titles away and what is left?"

"People?" Aveline guesses, not sure where this was going.

"Yes," he says, "people. Both sides are people in the end."

"Indeed," Aveline agrees, remembering all the times Madaeleine comforted her.

"Why do you not call me Connor like everyone else?" Connor asked.

"Do you want me to?" Aveline asks, her green eyes wide as she stares at him. Connor sips his tea.

"I… I like that you use my name… my real name," he says. "It is nice to hear it, makes me remember my mother's people… where I came from, why I began this journey, why I still fight."

"I'm glad, because I like it too," Aveline finishes her tea and leans over the table, pressing her lips softly against his cheek. "Goodnight, Ratonhnhaké:ton." She gets up from the table and heads off to her room. Connor watches her go, a smile on his lips.

"Goodnight, Aveline," he whispers.

**Author's Note:**

> Assassin's Creed (c) Ubisoft
> 
> I came up with this idea last night. I'm trying to work around my block on United We Stand, and I felt that maybe I should revisit the Kenways. So, here's this thing. I may get my lazy butt in gear and work on the next chapter for EKGTCR but I make no promises. I also feel the need to revisit the Fryes, so Differences may get updated.
> 
> I'm just need to take a break from France right now.
> 
> Save an author; leave a review!


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